Sunday, May 30, 2021

Musical Sunday


It's not only a great rock song ... it might as well be the anthem for 2021 America. Take it away, Bob Seger ...


Watch out for that full-force gale, driven by the high-pressure systems of fear, hatred, jealousy, intolerance, and political inflexibility.

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. Remember our fallen soldiers, sailors, and airmen on this Memorial Day weekend.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Friday, May 28, 2021

Great Moments in Editing and Signage


Once more into the breach, Dear Friends ...

I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty good argument ...


The bug must have come from one of those 1950's horror movies ...


Be sure to say grace before you eat it ...


Who were they hiring before? ...


I've always found this to be true ...


Please ...


And you'd better not get in their way ...


Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? ...


It's integral to good traffic management ...


I wonder where that copy editor is working now ...


And that's it for this week! Be sure to come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday. More thoughts then.

Bilbo

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Poetry Sunday


I'm two years shy of my 72nd birthday, but I'm not ready to check out yet - I have grandchildren to love, a garden to tend, fine wine to drink, and plenty of friends who are, oddly enough, still speaking to me ...

two nights before my 72nd birthday
by Charles Bukowski

sitting here on a boiling hot night while
drinking a bottle of cabernet sauvignon
after winning $232 at the track.
there's not much I can tell you except 
if it weren't for my bad right leg
I don't feel much different than I did
30 or 40 years ago (except that
now I have more money and should be able 
to afford a decent 
burial). also,
I drive better automobiles and have
stopped carrying a 
switchblade.
I am still looking for a hero, a role model,
but can't find one.
I am no more tolerant of Humanity
than I ever was.
I am not bored with myself and find
that I am the only one I can 
turn to in time of
crisis.
I've been ready to die for decades and
I've been practicing, polishing up
for that end
but it's very 
hot tonight
and I can thing of little but
this fine cabernet,
that's gift enough for me.
sometimes I can't 
believe I've come this far,
this has to be some kind of goddamned
miracle!
just another old guy
blinking at the forces,
smiling a little,
as the cities tremble and the left
hand rises,
clutching
something 
real. 

Have a good day, enjoy the rest of the weekend ... and of your life - it's the only one you'll get.

More thoughts coming.

Bilbo 

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Cartoon Saturday


Because Agnes and I are on the road, attending the dual graduation festivities for our granddaughter Marcy (college) and grandson Joe (high school), I'm preparing this week's Cartoon Saturday in advance; therefore, the usual bad news summary won't appear today. You can thank me later. Instead, we'll go right to the Cartoons, this week focusing on (appropriately enough) education ...

Cat owners will understand ...


It's all a matter of perspective ...


I agree, but not only for this reason ...


AAAUUUGGGHHH!!! ...


I think it would be appropriate ...


Compare to the first cartoon ...


I hope it works ...


Gotta slip in a pun ...


I think I can understand ...


Of course, if you're a clown, there's a bright future in the GOP ...


And that's how it is for today ... hope you enjoyed the cartoons. Have a good day and a great weekend, and come back tomorrow for Poetry Sunday - more thoughts then.

Bilbo

Friday, May 21, 2021

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for May, 2021


In the vast, swirling cesspool that is the universe of potential Ass Clown Awardees, there's an occasional chunk that comes to the surface faster and bobs for attention more energetically than most. And so it is today, as we present the award for

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for May, 2021


to

Representative Andrew Clyde (R, GA-9)


What is it with Georgia and the people it elects to Congress? The state already has the questionable distinction of having sent Marjorie Taylor Greene (the Left-Cheek Ass Clown for January of this year) to Washington for some reason, but another Georgia representative, Andrew Clyde, has reached a level of stupidity and denial of reality at least equal to Ms Greene.

During a May 12th House Oversight Committee hearing on the January 6th Capitol riot, Rep.  Clyde said the House floor was not breached during the riot. Unfortunately, there is photographic evidence of him (second from the left) trying to hold the door to the House chamber against the rioters ...


He went on to say that,

"Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol, and walk through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking videos and pictures, you know ... If you didn't know that TV footage was a video from January the sixth, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.” 

Let's look at a few images from January 6th of people on "a normal tourist visit" behaving "in an orderly fashion" ...







The level of gaslighting and blatant denial of reality of Republicans* in general, and of Rep Clyde in particular, is stunning. It's little wonder that many people are recalling this famous quote from George Orwell's prescient novel 1984:

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

The nation cannot afford to allow cynical liars like Andrew Clyde, Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert, Ron Johnson, and others to obscure or bury the truth of what happened on January 6th, 2021. It was a huge and violent riot in which six people died, more than a hundred were injured, and massive damage was done to the Capitol Building and to the honor and international standing of the United States. It was the result of a disgraceful, sustained effort to undermine the results of a free, fair, legal, and proper election in the interest of a defeated party and a depraved individual unwilling to accept the legitimacy of the American people's choice for President.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, the choice is clear: the Left-Cheek Ass Clown for May, 2021, is Georgia Representative Andrew Clyde. Like his fellow representative and Ass Clown Awardee Marjorie Taylor Greene, he deserves the opprobrium and disgust of every American who values truth, honor, democracy, and the primacy of the Constitution.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, on Cartoon Saturday. See you then.

Bilbo


Sunday, May 16, 2021

Musical Sunday


This week, we honor that most macha of GOP House members. Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is one tough legislator, fearlessly berating her fellow members of Congress, as well as courageously taking on teenaged gun control advocates. Don't cross this lady ...


It makes you wonder what sort of people are being elected to Congress ... and what sort of people are voting for them, doesn't it?

Have a good day and enjoy the rest of your weekend. More thoughts coming.

Bilbo

Saturday, May 15, 2021

Cartoon Saturday


It just gets weirder and weirder ...

The remains of a 20-ton Chinese rocket fell from space on Sunday, landing harmlessly (thank goodness) in the Indian Ocean; deadly violence continued in the Middle East with at least 130 people killed as Hamas militants continued to launch barrages of rockets into Israel, which responded with massive artillery fire and air strikes; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Thursday that persons who have successfully received full immunization for Covid-19 can stop wearing masks in most areas; Congresswoman Liz Cheney called out Fox News - on a Fox News program - for the network's culpability in spreading the myth of the stolen 2020 election; and in South Carolina, a woman was seriously burned after her car, loaded with multiple cans of hoarded gasoline, exploded as she tried to elude police, who had noted that the license plates on her car had been reported stolen.

This week, in honor of the difficulty of President Biden accomplishing anything worthwhile for real people in the face of admitted 100% Republican opposition, I thought a collection of cartoons riffing on the myth of Sisyphus would be timely ...

Few people know about Sisyphus's little brother ...  


What could make it worse? ...


Myth mashup ...


He should have thought of that sooner ...


Delay of game ...


Too many steps to count without it ...


It's an appropriate hobby ...


Who's more frustrated? ...


Helping out temporarily ...


Yep, that was probably how things started ...


That's it for today - hope the trials of Sisyphus have helped you laugh at your own trials in today's weird US of A.

Have a good day and a great weekend. More tuneful thoughts tomorrow, when Musical Sunday returns.

Bilbo

Friday, May 14, 2021

Great Moments in Editing and Signage


And away we go ...

I usually take care of this myself, but why pass up a good deal? ...


A side of mansplaining with your lunch, ladies? ...


Um ...


I hope the animal rights people don't get wind of this ...


Republican economic math ...


Thanks, but I'll go with the broccoli and cheese ...


That's one tough arbitrator ...


Well, duh ...


This was in a newspaper in Tyler, Texas back in January ... you know ... Texas, the Looney Star State ...


Is this an odd way to describe gerrymandering, or just an inept ad? ...


That's it for this week - hope you enjoyed it.

Have a good day, and come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday. More thoughts then. 

Bilbo

Sunday, May 09, 2021

Mothers Day, 2021


If you were looking for the Poetry Sunday post you expected, don't despair. Because today is Mothers' Day, Poetry Sunday will not appear this week so that I can present the fourteenth iteration of my traditional Mothers' Day post, slightly revised and updated. It may be recycled and tweaked, but it comes no less from the heart. If you've read it before, just know that everything still applies ... read it again if you like, or come back another day for my thoughts on other things ...

Today is Mothers' Day, the one day each year we set aside to honor the lady we undervalue the other 364 (365 in leap years). It's the day we remember the person who made our hurts better, explained our homework, cooked our meals, washed our clothes, drove us where we needed to go, warned us about our less-savory acquaintances, embarrassed us in front of our friends, and did her best to point us down the straight line of a moral and upright life.

Mothers are the wonderful and woefully underappreciated people from whom the Army and the Navy stole their one-time recruiting slogans - the Army's "We do more before 9 AM than most people do all day," and the Navy's "It's not just a job, it's an adventure." They'll never match the skill and daring of a mother who, over the past year of Covid-inspired insanity, managed a household, coped with the loss of a job (or jobs), helped home-school her children and keep them occupied all day long, and worried that every sniffle or sneeze was a sign of impending death.

Somewhere in my web surfing I found this riff on how we look at our Mothers at different ages:

Age 4: Mommy can do anything!
Age 8: Mom knows a lot!
Age 12: Mother doesn't know everything.
Age 14: Mother doesn't know anything.
Age 16: Mother is so old-fashioned.
Age 18: Her? She's out of it.
Age 25: Mom might know something about that.
Age 35: Before we decide, let's ask Mom.
Age 45: What would Mom have thought about that?
Age 65: I wish I could talk that over with Mom.

It's true.

My mother passed away twenty years ago at the far-too-young age of 74. She spent a long and honorable life raising four children who, I like to think, made her proud ... most of the time, anyway. And in her twilight years, her once-formidable mind ravaged by Alzheimer's Disease, she missed much of the result of her love and care and sacrifice - a son who's now retired and gray, a small army of grandchildren, and six beautiful great-grandchildren who will never know her love and wisdom and the off-the-wall sense of humor* that brightened the lives of everyone who knew her.


Now the next generation of mothers is moving the family forward. Between them, my beloved daughters Yasmin and Tabitha** are raising the world's six greatest grandchildren (Marcy, Joe, Noah, Leya, Elise, and Ava). And someday those wonderful grandchildren will sit down on Mothers' Day and reflect - just as their opa does today - on the lady who gave up so much of her own life and dreams to make them who they are.

And so again this year, I wish my own Agnes, Yasmin and Tabitha, my sister Lisa and sisters-in-law Laura and Brenda, fellow bloggers Amanda and Fiona, my dear friends Kathy, Gail, and Lioudmila, and all the other mothers and grandmothers out there doing the world's toughest job, a very happy Mothers' Day and many more to come. We couldn't be what we are, or do what we do, without you.

And lest you think I'm getting too maudlin about the whole thing, here's a picture from long ago of my Dad with four then and future moms: my daughter Yasmin, my sister Lisa, Agnes, and my mother ...


We're an odd family, but somehow we've turned out all right, more-or-less. Good parents will do that to you.

Have a good day, and take the time to give your Mother a hug and a kiss. Someday, you'll wish you had.

Bilbo

* Every time you groan at one of my puns, you should be grateful that you never had to go down in flames in a pun war with Mom.

** I don’t think of Tabitha as an “in-law.”